War Of Champions
by WhiskeyDragon
Summary: The War of Champion's Tournament, the best of the best compete to prove that they are something greater than even a league champion. The ultimate trainer of their generation. Too bad not everything is as it seems, could the true purpose behind the tournament be something much more sinister?
1. Prologue

Prologue: 3 Years Of Silence

'_Mount Silver was aptly named' _Henna mentally remarked as she stumbled her way across the craggy terrain. There was nothing but rock in every conceivable direction and her entire vision was filled with constantly shifting shades of silver and grey, if she wasn't already aching all over from her hellish climb then it might have given her a headache worth mentioning. At this point however, she was no stranger to pain and a mere headache was the least of her worries.

With a tired sigh she checked her GPS once again, a look of relief washing over her face when she saw the tiny distance between her location and her destination and a sense of achievement when she saw the distance between her location and the beginning of her journey. Sniffing her clothes she plucked a small bottle from her backpack and quickly doused herself in another shower of Repel, she wasn't about to risk any wild pokémon appearing. Satisfied she was sufficiently odorous to Repel any and all wild pokémon she clumsily pulled herself up onto the final plateau of Mount Silver, she was where she needed to be, now she could only hope he was too.

She glanced around the plateau and her face fell. There was no sign of him. Promisingly there were at least signs that he had been there, few as they were. A single bag, the colour all but worn off and the fabric thinned almost to threads in places, and a small fireplace filled with charcoal were the only traces of his presence here, but they were enough.

'_Thank god, if my boss found out I came all this way and he wasn't here I'd be in trouble.' _

There was nothing else she could do but wait. So she did, dropping her bag and pacing around the plateau several times before choosing the flattest spot she could to sit on. Crossing her arms and feeling relief flood through her body, the fatigue of the day beginning to catch up with her. Just getting here was hard enough she couldn't imagine how she was going to get back.

_'Well. If you wanted peace and quiet, this is definitely the best place to go.'_

The plateau was unnaturally quiet. Seemingly devoid of even a single wild pokémon so it didn't take long for Henna to notice his arrival. The air around her, which had been stagnant, suddenly filled with the kind of electric tension reserved for battlefields, or board meetings. She could practically feel the five suspicious glares that were boring into her from every direction, this was something else. Call it what you like, 'aura' or 'killing intent' or anything else you can think of but it was something you'd encounter regularly if you spend any time around pokémon. The killing intent' of a champion's pokémon however, was something more incredible than she could have imagined.

She was trembling slighty, some base instinct of hers reacting to the pressure the pokémon were giving off, but still managed to force herself to stand and turn to face them. That didn't help. Facing them only proved to make the unreal pressure that was swallowing her up even more powerful. The five of them were gathered around him, the fierce red dragon on his left, the solid cannon tortoise on his right, the hulking form of the leaf reptile stood in front of him, the massive behemoth of flesh that passed for the sleeping giant behind him, the seemingly harmless yellow mouse perched on his shoulder. A single pokeball remaining on his belt.

'_This is what it feels like to be in the presence of a legendary champion. This is what it feels like to be stood in front of a hero. This man can't be anybody except him.'_

"Red." She murmured despite her shaking. The figure smiled and nodded.

Seeing the terror evident in Henna's eyes Red raised his hand and waved his pokémon off. Immediately she felt their aura fade and the air around her settle down. The five of them slowly slinking away to positions where they weren't directly facing her but could still watch her out of the corner of their eyes. Feeling as though a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders she let out a long sigh of relief and for a while Red simply watched her as she regained her composure. As she caught her breath she examined Red. He was wearing tattered clothes which, like his bag, had frayed and faded into colourless rags. His shoes were almost nonexistent and the only piece of clothing that was still in good shape was his red cap. His hair was long, stretching down to the crook of his back and his face was unshaven, leaving him with a scraggly beard.

"Um..." She finally managed to speak, only to falter immediately when she met his gaze. It was so intense. They say that people's experiences show in their eyes, if that was true then the emerald shine that penetrated his mop of untidy hair spoke volumes for the life he had lived. Finally, she managed to speak. "My name is Hennalor Torsen. You're Red right?"

Red nodded, the action making his thick head of hair ripple.

"I'm here on behalf of Silph Co International to give you this." With a flourish she produced an envelope, printed on expensive paper with gold trimming. The second it came into contact with Red's fingertips the pure white was irreparably smudged. "You've been invited to attend the Silph Co War of Champions! We're gathering high level trainers and ex champions to compete to prove they're the best out of all the currently active trainers, from all the regions, all the leagues."

Red nodded distractedly as he read the invitation, on one side was just a simple line of text stating that he had been invited, on the other however was a large collection of information on the tournament. Including confirmed competitors, rumoured competitors, dates and possible special events. Red's eyes were scanning the list of competitors when a smirk flickered on his face and a quiet chuckle escaped his lips.

Henna couldn't help but wonder which of the competitors had caught his attention and tried to remember who was on the list. She was deep in thought when Red finally stopped reading and paced over to his bag. He pulled four aging pokéballs from inside and dropped them on the ground, his four huge pokémon obediently pacing over and tapping them, each one disappearing in a flash of red light in turn. With his Pikachu hopping onto his shoulder he shouldered his bag and began to walk away, he was about to jump down from the plateau and begin descending the mountain when Henna found her voice again.

"Um. I'm supposed to bring you back with me! I have the GPS and everything!" She yelped and waved her GPS at him, grabbing her backpack as she did.

He smirked and in a voice that was rusted and tired from disuse said. "Let's go then."


	2. The Contenders

Chapter 1: The Contenders

The inside of Viridian was dark when Joe stepped inside. Well, dark was an understatement, it was a gloomy place to begin with, full of old pokémon statues and not much else. Add a lot of blacked out windows and next to no natural light and the place looked like a cheap house of horrors at a fairground. It was thanks to the dark that he didn't notice the figure approach him from behind one of the statues. The noise, akin to the sound a dying bird or very scared little girl makes, that came out of his mouth was something he'd never admit to anyone.

"Holy crap that was loud. Okay, calm down buddy. Honestly. Why is everyone always so jumpy? It's not even that dark."

"Are you Blue Oak? The Gym Leader?" He asked, his face bright red as he tried tohide his embarrassment and make out the figure through the darkness.

"The one and only. You a challenger?" Came the cheerful reply.

"Um. In a manner of speaking. Can we battle please?"

"You got the other seven badges?" Blue asked sceptically. "Because you don't look like much of a trainer to me."

"No I don't. I'm not here for a badge, I just need to battle you."

"Okaaay." Blue replied, his confusion showing clearly on his face. "Whatever dude, as long as it's not for a badge I can battle whoever I want just... try not to get beat too bad okay? I'll feel bad for your pokémon."

Joe scowled, irritated by Blue's attitude but unable to refute it. He'd been a poor trainer in his youth and hadn't managed to get more than two badges. The pokémon he carried today didn't belong to him and had been trained to battle independently of their trainer. He was nothing more than transport for the much more important test pokémon, his job was to hold the invitation and let the pokémon do their thing.

"Follow me." Blue told him. "Is three on three okay? Six on six would be overkill and I don't really enjoy boring battles, or inflicting needless pain onto pokémon."

"Um. Yes, three on three is acceptable." Joe managed to stammer out before losing his will to talk, he'd quit being a trainer exactly because he wasn't any good at it. It wasn't fair that he was stuck being some kind of proxy trainer for the higher ups against his will, it just gave people like Blue, competent trainers, excuses to make fun of him.

"Alright!" Blue declared as they arrived at the pokémon arena inside the gym. The dusty white lines poorly maintained and barely visible in the darkness. "Lemme get the lights."

Blue flicked a switch on the nearby wall and the dark building was bathed in the light of the floodlights overhead. For the first time since he'd entered the building he could actually see Blue. A thick messy head of dusty brown hair and a cocky grin that practically defined the guy, for someone who acted so superior his wardrobe was surprisingly simple. A plain black jacket and sand coloured pants, Joe had been expecting all designer labels, or at least some douchy sunglasses.

"Alright. Let's do this." Blue grabbed the first ball on his belt and tossed it lazily into the arena.

The ball cracked in half and a solid mass of white energy emerged, slowly shimmering and shifting into the shape of a wolf with crimson red fur. Joe had seen Arcanine before, both in pictures and reality, but what was stood in the centre of the arena was incomparable to them. Thick knotted muscle rippled and twisted underneath its fur, speaking of the amazing power stored in its body. Its coat shimmered so many different shades of red you could almost believe the beast was carved from flames. Most terrifyingly of all, each of its fangs was so visibly sharp, so similar to a row of dozens of knives, that Joe physically recoiled in fear at the sight. This pokémon stood in the upper echelons of strength and its regal posture suggested that it knew that.

Joe gulped and pulled the crumpled note he'd been given from his pocket. "Okay... if he releases Arcanine use pokéball number... 3!"

Joe tried to ignore Blue's look of disbelief and carefully located the third of his pokéballs, nervously tossing it into the arena. The ball bounced and for a terrifying second Joe thought it wasn't going to open and he was going to look like an even bigger fool, but as it bounce it cracked open and the formless mass of energy emerged. From within emerged a streamlined mantis, Scyther, a pokémon renowned for its deadly speed and wicked sharp blades. This one was clearly a veteran. The sudden weight in the air when it emerged from its ball, coupled with the obvious and almost sinister sharpness of its blades spoke volumes. Even to an amateur like Joe.

Blue chuckled. "You wanna compete in speed? With MY Arcanine? I don't know who gave you that note buddy, but they've got balls. You ready?"

Joe nodded.

"Then let's GO! Arcanine, Extreme Speed!"

Joe's mouth opened to issue a command, before snapping shut when he remembered he had no control over this battle. This level was far above him.

Arcanine's entire body erupted into motion, ripping forward through the air in an explosion of dust as it pushed off the floor. There was a white flash and Arcanine appeared in front of Joe faster than he could see, he flinched and raised his arms to try and protect himself from the incoming furry bullet but, as quickly as it had taken off, Arcanine skidded to a halt and spun to face Scyther, who had nimbly dodged the lightning fast attack.

The pressure in the air grew thicker as the two pokémon began to slowly pace around the arena, each watching the other with well trained eyes. Joe was doing his best just to maintain his bladder control, but when he looked over at Blue he realised why he had never been a good trainer. Blue's eyes were narrowed and locked onto the two figures in the arena, his body was tensed and his breathing had slowed until it was nearly no existent, this level of concentration was something Joe would never understand. It felt as though Blue was in the arena with the two pokémon.

A heavy silence washed over the stadium. Joe couldn't help but keep quiet as any words that formed in his mouth were crushed by the intense pressure that filled the room. The only sounds were the steady thud of Arcanine's paws and the gentle click of Scyther's claws as the two circled each other.

"Fire Fang!"

Arcanine broke the stalemate, leaping forward with crimson death spewing out of its mouth and washing over its fangs. Scyther dodged backwards to avoid the brutal flames and Arcanine's jaws snapped shut just short of Scyther's thorax, the flames rippling and flaring as the shockwave from Arcanine's vice like jaws passed through them. Arcanine's neck twisted and it lashed out with its fangs again, only for Scyther to narrowly slip out of his range once again, this time attempting to flee across the battlefield. Arcanine crouched and rocketed after Scyther. The duo zigzagged across the field and leaving a trail of red flashes as Arcanine lashed out again and again with his fangs, Scyther narrowly pulling himself out of the jaws of defeat each time.

Arcanine's flames fluttered and slid back down its throat as he finally had to relinquish his assault for a brief moment to recover his breath. Seeing his opportunity Scyther lunged forward, his right blade flashing towards Arcanine's neck. There was a flash of light and both figures froze, Scyther's blade caught neatly between Arcanine's jaw. For the briefest of seconds Scyther looked genuinely afraid, before Arcanine's jaws closed and a sickening crack reverberated throughout the building, Scyther's blade shattering into dozens of shards that scattered across the ground.

"Flamethrower!"

As the injured Scyther staggered backwards Arcanine's head snapped upwards and a seething mass of flame erupted inside its maw. His head swung down towards Scyther like a guillotine and a torrent of flames burst forth from within, the vortex of fire mercilessly crashed into the crippled Scyther and sent the unfortunate creature tumbling through the air before it came to an abrupt stop. The force of the attack embedding the mantis in a nearby wall. Where, after several seconds, it peeled away from the deep crater and tumbled to the ground and landed in a heap.

Joe stared in amazement while Arcanine stood triumphant amongst the shards of Scyther's blade. "Good work buddy." Blue remarked retuning Arcanine to its pokéball. "You'd better return that Scyther to its ball fast dude, that needs at least a full treatment at a pokémon centre, if not several."

"Um. Yeah." Joe replied, dazed, before sucking the Scyther back into its ball.

"Alright. You're up next buddy."

Blue tossed another pokéball into the arena. A hulking bipedal rhino carved from granite emerging from within. Joe gulped in fear for whichever pokémon he would have to send out next, surely a Rhydon's horn wasn't usually that big? And its armour that thick? With very little enthusiasm Joe checked his notes and tossed pokéball number 5 into the arena.

As the white light of his pokémon formed Joe couldn't help but feel hopeful that this battle would go better for his poor pokémon than the last. Unlike before the reptilian beast that emerged from his pokéball wasn't at a type disadvantage, Rampardos was on a fairly even footing with Rhydon. If anything Rampardos was at a slight advantage, being well known for its power.

The gazes of the two pokémon met and Rampardos instigated by pawing at the ground, unlike before the tension lasted only a few seconds before Ramparods attacked, charging towards Rhydon. Rampardos had greater speed and Rhydon knew it, remaining still as the spearing pokémon rocketed towards Rhydon in a streak of white light. Rhydon's own movements would have been useless and slow, so instead Rhydon shifted its weight onto its front leg and planted itself firmly on the ground. Mere inches away from his opponent Rampardos' head swung down, bringing its thick skull plate to bear while Rhydon curled one hand into a fist, swunging one of its huge appendages at its opponent.

The duo clashed and there was a deep crunch as Rhydon's fist embedded itself in the Rampardos' skull plate. Unlike Arcanine Rhydon didn't have much force, just sheer stopping power, so unlike Arcanine's attack Rampardos didn't fly across the room. Instead chunks of its skull plate crumbled away from its head and gravity dislodged Rhydon's fist from the remains of the poor creature's skull plate. The poor pokémon crumbled to the ground, at best simply unconscious, while Rhydon watched with disinterest and Blue sighed before returning his pokémon.

"Buddy. As both a trainer and a Gym Leader, if you force me to do that to another of your pokémon I'm going to lose my temper."

Joe returned the Rampardos and gave Blue a look that was half respect, half terror, before nodding. "Yeah. That's more than enough. Here."

Still somewhat shell shocked from what he'd just witnessed Joe handed Blue the envelope with shaking hands. "It's the War of Champion's tournament organised by Silph Co international, all gym leaders are invited if they pass the evaluation, that was yours. You passed. Congratulations." Joe mumbled as he stared at the aftermath of the two battles, still trying to wrap his head around what he'd just seen.

"How the hell does anyone ever win the Earthbadge?"

"Oh I have a weaker regulation team I use for gym battles. Although even then not many people beat me, that's the point of being gym number eight. I'm the buffer between the challengers and the elite four. I weed out the weaklings. Hey what's this?"

Joe glanced up and saw Blue examining the back of the envelope. "Additional information on the competition, that ticket is one of the ones issued today so the information should be the most up to date."

"Hmm." Blue murmured scanning the wall of text, suddenly his eyes fixed on one name and a wide grin spread across his face. "Hey, this name here in 'Confirmed Competitors' they're definitely coming right?"

'_Red? Wasn't he a Champion at one point?'_

The name Blue was pointing at rang a bell in Joe's head, but he couldn't quite work out why. "If their name is on that list that means that they've accepted. Probably already at the tournament grounds too. Why does it matter?"

"HAHA!" Blue howled stuffing the ticket into his pocket. "I'm all pumped up! Lemme just get my stuff and we'll head off right away, damn if he's competing I can't miss it for anything!"

* * *

Falkner's Pidgeot crashed into the wall with enough force to rattle the foundations of the gym, the bird's once majestic plumage stained with blood and its body broken. Falkner just stared in disbelief at his prized pokémon, now reduced to the same state of total defeat as his other pokémon. The trainer stood opposite him, his Electivire smirking with superiority at the easy win, let out a loud mocking laugh.

Mary's eyes couldn't tear themselves away from the Electivire, its entire body was bathed in static, just the residual electricity from its battle was powerful enough to make her hair stand on end from several dozen metres away. She still couldn't believe it, she'd would have never expected someone that wasn't even on the list for the War of Champions would make such short work of a competitor that had just received their invitation.

"I think this belongs to me." The challenger declared, snatching Falkner's invitation from his hands.

"Ah!" Mary exclaimed. "You can't do that, invitations are exclusive to the person whose name is on it."

The challenger opened his mouth, a look of scorn on his face, and was no doubt about to insult her when Falkner intervened. "Let him have the invite." He declared. "After that defeat I clearly don't deserve to compete in any event with the word 'champions' in the title."

"First sensible thing you've said all afternoon." Declared the challenger, returning his Electivire and smirking.

Mary scowled, but knew her hands were tied. "Alright. Give Falkner back his invitation, he's still eligible to compete. Come with me and I'll arrange your invitation. What's your name?"

"Ardos."

'_If the rest of his team is as powerful as that Electivire then it's going to take a monster to beat him.' _She ran through the competitors she'd heard about trying to figure out if any of them could match up to this 'Ardos'.

'_Maybe the Johto champion from four years ago, or the current Hoenn champion, it's her second term as champion if I remember correctly, and of course there's always the other wild card that entered last week. '_

"Hey! Woman! Quit daydreaming already!" Ardos Snapped. "I want my invitation sometime this century!"

_'Jerk. I can't wait to watch you get beat down.'_

* * *

"Lunatone!"

"Solrock!"

"GO!"

Mossdeep gym had been torn to pieces by the force of their battle, the most even clash in all of history, between the twin gym leaders Liza and Tate. With entering as a pair not being an option for the War of Champions they'd decided to pick which one of them got to go the only way they ever could have. With a battle. Now, finally, the battle had reached its climax, two pokémon, two psybeam attacks, one survivor. The blasts clashed, brutal amounts of psychic feedback flooding the arena and sending thick stabbing pain through the minds of the two competitors.

Without warning Solrock's beam began to shudder and Tate's face fell, he already knew what was coming next. Solrock's beam faltered under the colossal pressure of its opponent and Lunatone's psybeam triumphed, mercilessly sending Solrock streaking across the gym and into the opposing wall. The victor had been decided.

"DAMMIT!" Tate yelled, sinking to his knees and punching the ground beneath him in frustration.

Liza sighed and made her way over to her brother, the edges of her sky blue china dress were frayed from the battle and she frowned as she noticed this. She'd only recently started wearing dresses, but she liked them a great deal, having worn an identical outfit to her brother in her youth. It'd started to look out of place however as she'd grown into a teenager and now at seventeen she could no longer get away with wearing men's clothes something which she was quite pleased with. Despite her own transition into adulthood her brother remained as imature as he'd been in his youth, albeit taller.

"Come on bro-"

"-you can still go if you want to. We both got invitations." Tate finished, grumbling and looking up at her. "Yeah I know but-"

"-we both agreed only one of us would go." She finished. "I know but-"

"-That was just a stupid bet. Except-"

"Will you two PLEASE stop that!" Sarah exclaimed sighing. "Look I've got two invitations here one for Liza, one for Tate. You can have two, one, or none. That was the deal when you passed the evaluation, I really don't care which it is so for the love of god please just DECIDE already."

"Arlright alright." Tate said sighing. "We'll take-"

"-Just my invite." Liza finished.


	3. The Party Part 1

Chapter 2 – The Party Part 1

"Hello there folks!" Sally chimed in a sickeningly sweet tone. "It's me, Sally Mcullan, and you're watching the pokéshow! Today we're live from the Sevii Islands and on the red carpet for the War of Champions opening ceremony! Yaya!"

Sally thrust her arms into the air and cocked one leg slightly, her head a few degrees to the side and a huge smile painted across her face. Behind her the once imposing form of Kin Island's Berry Forest had been reduced to nothing more than lines of untouched green beside the ocean of hotels. All of which funnelled visitors towards the imposing figure of the arena, a colossal structure that stood above everything else of the other side of the island.

The arena was one of the largest and most complex battling arenas even made, boasting a set of three identical battlefields each one four times larger than a regulation arena and containing a 'dynamic battlefield system'. Silph Co were keeping their mouths shut about what exactly the D.B.S. was, but promised it would revolutionise competitive battling.

"Cut!" The second the cameras stopped rolling Sally let out a long sigh and the juvenile smile fell from her face. "That was good Sal. Now we just need to get through the tournament rundown before the competitors get here. You ready?"

"Yeah. Yeah. Just gimme a sec will ya Doug? All that smiling like an idiot is making my cheeks hurt." Sally took a couple of deep breaths and massaged her cheeks a few times before nodding. "Alright. Let's go."

"Cameras rolling in...3...2...1...action!"

"HEYA!" Sally exclaimed, pumping her fist like a small child while once again forcing her face into that plastic smile. "For those that don't know what the War of Champions tournament is your favourite presenter is here to give you guys the rundown! Okies? Alright!"

"Silph Co international, that's the people who make pokéballs guys! Don't tell me you don't even know that." Sally shook her finger at the camera and produced a look of cutesy mock annoyance.

"They've gathered all the best trainers they can find in order to find out who is the strongest! How is this different from the pokémon league you ask? Simples! Not only are gym leaders allowed to compete but, most of the competitors will be current or ex pokémon league champions! Can you guess why it's called the 'War of Champions' now? The battles promise to be intense! The trainers are the best of the best! And the Pokémon Television Network promise to bring you every exciting second of it! Yaysies!"

All around the red carpet there were people repeating similar scenes, albeit with less faux adorableness. This tournament was filled to bursting with every famous or talented trainer that had made a name for themselves over the last decade and even a few veterans from the early days of training. Rumour had it even such old hands as Kurt the pokéball craftsman from Johto and Kanto's own Samuel Oak would be competing, although those rumours had no basis. No one had any concrete info on the competitors, just page after page of online speculation. The world was in uproar over what might turn out to be the battling event of the century and it would be business suicide for any TV network not to cover the competition.

"Geez. I can't believe they actually make you talk like that on air."

"Tell me about it." Sally moaned, massaging her sore jaw muscles and praying they didn't start swelling up. The last thing she needed right now was to have a face like a cow. "The network executives decided that since I'm so small I should play up the cutesy angle, but honestly it's a pain in the butt. Cigarette?"

"No thanks. I don't smoke."

Sally realised she wasn't talking to Doug, who had run off into the van to check his equipment, and turned to face whoever had snuck up on her. A young guy, about twenty or so, with sandy brown hair, smartly dressed without being over the top and carrying himself like someone with the utmost confidence.

'_Not bad. Pretty easy on the eyes. If I wasn't at work...'_

"Suit yourself." She replied lighting her own and taking a long steady drag, he seemed familiar to her. "You here with one of the other crews?"

"Not exactly."

"Huh..." She looked him up and down, the nagging feeling of familiarity getting stronger. "Do I know you from somewhere then?"

"Depends, you ever been to Virdian?"

It clicked. "You're Blue Oak!" She yelped slightly louder than she'd meant to. "Are you competing?"

Blue grinned. "Yep. Guess I must be the first of the competitors to get here huh? Since nobody noticed me walk straight past a couple of camera crews. That or I'm not as famous as I used to be."

"Do you mind if I get an interview?" She asked, waving at Doug to come back.

"Sure." Blue replied with a grin. "Nothing I'd rather do than shoot the breeze with a beautiful woman."

'_Oh if I wasn't working, I'd break you kid.'_

"Yo Sal." Doug yelled grabbing his camera. "The network says they're ready to go live whenever we are."

"Alright let's go." Sally dropped and stubbed out the cigarette in one smooth motion before twisting her face back into her camera smile.

"Aight. 3...2...1...We're on air!"

"Heya guys! We're here with Blue Oak. The very first confirmed competitor of the War of Champions tournament! Awesome right? Alright Blue say hello to everyone out there watching!" Sally turned to face Blue and presented him with the microphone.

"Hey." Blue said nonchalantly, giving a small wave as he did. Sally paused for a few more seconds before realising Blue wasn't going to say anything more.

"Alright Blue! For those of you that don't know, Blue is the gym leader over at Viridian City which is badge number eight on the Kanto badge run. So since you're a gym leader I'll ask what everyone online has been wondering. Since the competition is so full of pokémon league winners haven't you already lost to a lot of the competitors and aren't you worried you're going to lose again?"

Blue very nearly scowled, but managed to hold it in. "Well Sally. What a lot of people don't know is that most gym leaders, especially the ones earlier on in the badge run, use a regulation team instead of their own pokémon in gym battles. A gym leader's job isn't to win as much as possible, it's to judge the trainers that get to their gym and decide if they are skilled enough to possess their badge. I haven't had a serious battle since I became a gym leader and I imagine the same is true of a lot of other leaders."

"Oooh. Fighting talk. Well then I'll be excited to see you get serious when the competition starts. Alright! Do the competitors know who else is competing yet? And if so are there any trainers you've got your eye on?"

"They've only started the recruiting in the last week or so. So only a few people know everyone who's competing, but most of us have a pretty good idea. As for trainers I have my eye on, there's a couple. The Hoenn champion for one. She just started her second term as champion and that's not easy to do. Her skills are the real deal. Sabrina as well, she has a very unique battling style which tends to catch her first time opponents off guard, I don't envy any trainers from overseas that has to battle her. I've even heard good things about the Unova champion, I sure don't want to fight him, since I won't be very familiar with his pokémon. And of course I have a revenge match in mind."

Sally leant in closer a look of childlike wonder on her face, obviously fake. "Ohhh. A revenge match? Sounds exciting, but against who?"

"Red Campione of course. Who else? I've got to pay him back for taking my title as champion."

"Red?" Sally replied enthusiastically. "Is he competing?"

"Yup." Blue replied. "I was pretty excited when I found out, so there's no way I can lose until I get to face him."

"Wowzzas." Sally exclaimed, winking at the camera.

"For our younger viewers here's the lowdown on Red Campione. He won the champion title eight years ago at age twelve and lasted his full five year term as a champion, not many people have managed that. He retired after his five years were up and since then nobody has heard much about him. So Blue. Where do you think he's been and what sort of condition will he be in as a trainer?"

"Red was a pokémon trainer to the core. So I imagine he went off somewhere with his pokémon to train, and if he did then he'll be on a whole other level compared to when he was the champion."

During their interview a small trickle of trainers had started to arrive, mostly the less famous ones, with a few gym leaders thrown in. It seemed Silph Co planned to really build the excitement before letting their stars join the show. Sally noticed the sudden influx of people and knew that she needed to move on, she couldn't just spend all day interviewing Blue.

"Wowza! Pretty serious words from Blue! Well you heard it here first folks, looks like the two champions from Pallet are the trainers to watch. Alright Blue thanks for your time and good luck in the competition!"

Blue nodded, able to tell she wanted shot of him so she could go after a more famous trainer, parting ways with a "No worries, save the luck for the people who need it!" before trotting off into the crowds. Spotting another competitor he recognised. "Yo Chris is that you? Dude I haven't seen you since you came to get my badge. What'd it take you three... four tries?"

* * *

Red was reeling. Things had started off so well, first he'd gotten a haircut, restricting his huge mop of black hair to the crown of spiky black he'd sported when he'd still been champion. Then he got a clean up, plenty of soap and some new clothes. Swapping out his faded rags for a brand new set of threads, except for his hat, he had history with that hat.

Even the red carpet hadn't been too bad. There'd been lights coming from every angle and so many questions they'd all fused into one, but he'd just ignored them and pushed forward until he was inside. That'd been where the trouble picked up.

'_Oh my god I can't believe how little I actually know about pokémon. Steel types? Dark types? FAIRY types? Seven hundred and... oh man I must've looked like the dumbest person on the planet!'_

Not only was he mortified but Red couldn't help but panic. Any trainer worth their salt knew that you needed a working knowledge of the types and capabilities of any pokémon you were planning to battle. At best he knew maybe two hundred different kinds of pokémon that left five hundred and eighteen nasty surprises waiting for him during the tournament, not to mention three whole type classifications he knew nothing about. That was a big problem.

"Pika!"

Red sighed and began to rub his hand over Pikachu's head, finding comfort in his partners recently washed and de-liced fur. It had been a long time since he'd been able to scratch him behind the ears like this without coming away with a handful of dirt, or worse. In order to hide his embarrassment he'd escaped from the epicentre of the snobby party and was now sat in a corner in one of the corridors branching off from the function room, wondering how he was going to memorise six hundred new pokémon in a few hours.

"Excuse me? You're Red right?"

Red glanced up and saw a member of the waiting staff approaching him cautiously, she was a girl around his age. Her short brown hair puffed up around her ears and this, coupled with the nervous way she was approaching him, made her look like a stray kitten.

"Yes. That's me." He replied. Trying to be as non threatening as he could, but not sure how to do so. People had told him before that he had quite an intimidating gaze and she looked like she was about to bolt at any minute.

"Um... I don't want to bother you or anything so if I am just tell me and I'll go straight away I mean I'm just a waitress so if I start bothering important people like you I'll get fired and I really don't want that to happen because I really like this job and-"

"Relax. You're not bothering me." Red replied, amazed that so much sound could come out of such a small person in so little time, and she really was tiny. He wasn't a particularly tall person but even sat down he could tell she was at least a few inches shorter than he was.

"Okay!" She replied. A bright smile appearing on her face. "Then do you mind signing this?"

She thrust her hands forward and handed him a black marker pen alongside a small rectangular piece of paper, which looked like a ticket of some sort. "This is..." Red murmured as he took a closer look at it.

"It's my ticket to your last ever title defence before you retired. You battled a guy named Chris Hanterson, I thought you were really cool." She replied blushing.

"Yeah. I remember that match. It was pretty tough, it didn't look it because he only knocked out three of my pokémon but I nearly lost that one. You were there?"

"Yeah!" She exclaimed excitedly. "I was sat right at the front behind you. I didn't stop cheering the whole time and even lost my voice the next day!"

"That's dedication. So who do I make it out to?"

"Jessica. Jessica Cyllete."

"Alright Jessica. Here." Red replied, marking the paper with a practiced hand before handing the signed ticket back to her.

There was an awkward silence. Red had expected her to leave, but it seemed she still had something she wanted to say, but was too timid to do so. Finally she found her voice.

"Um... how come you're out here and not in there with everyone else?" In response Red sighed and sunk down into himself. For a moment Jessica was scared she'd insulted him, or said something stupid, something she worried about a lot.

"Because I said something stupid and embarrassed myself." Red finally murmured, slumping even further towards the ground.

"Ah..." Jessica squeaked, realising to her horror that she'd stepped on a landmine. The atmosphere intensified and Red seemed content to wallow in self pity while Jessica fidgeted about, unsure what to say.

"One time I called my boss dad!"

"Wha?" Jessica had stopped fidgeting and was now stood frozen still with her hands across her mouth looking mortified. All that Red could muster was a single confused syllable as his head slowly rose to face her, a look of confusion plastered across his face.

"Um... well... I was not paying attention while our boss was giving a big group lecture and he noticed and yelled my name so I jumped and he yelled to apologise but I was really nervous and accidently called him 'dad!' and that freaked him out so he cut the lecture short and for the whole time I worked there he gave me loads of awkward looks and avoided me."

Red snorted and then burst into uncontrollable laughter, much to Jessica's embarrassment. "Why the heck would you tell me that?" Red managed to choke out between fits of giggles.

Jessica's face was bright red as she spoke. "I'm just saying that I've done embarrassing things too, but I didn't get fired or anything and people forgot all about it after a while. So you shouldn't worry so much."

Red chuckled again before replying. "Well after hearing that I can't exactly complain anymore can I? Thanks, I feel a lot better now."

Jessica's eyes light up in triumph. "You're welcome." She chimed happily.

Pulling himself to his feet Red held out his hand to Pikachu, the lightning rat clambering along his arm and up onto his should. "Well I should probably get back. Thanks for everything."

Jessica stopped him as he turned to leave. "Ah! Wait a second." Panicking she began to pat herself down, frantically looking for something. Eventually she produced the pen she'd given him to sign her ticket and untied the apron around her waist.

"Here!" She yelped scribbling something onto the apron. "It's my number. You-don't-have-to-but-you-can-call-me-if-you-ever-want-to-talk-or-anything!" She stammered at high speed, thrusting the apron into his empty hands, before turning and fleeing away from Red and the function room into the depths of the hotel.

"Huh." Red murmured looking down at the hastily scrawled phone number on the large piece of cloth. "Where the heck am I going to put this?"

"Well what do ya know? I go looking for you and I only find you picking up girls. You ladykiller you."

Red spun to face the voice. "Blue?" He asked surprised. "Is that you?"

"Who else do you know that's this handsome?" Blue replied grinning. In his hands were two glasses of incredibly expensive French champaign which he'd gotten from the bar. Many of the competitors had yet to discover the drinks were free, but Blue wasn't about to miss an opportunity to drink expensive liquor on someone else's tab. Something Red had learn at his peril during his years as champion. He offered one of the glasses to Red.

"No thanks."

"Suit yourself." Blue replied pouring the drink he'd offered to Red down his throat, before leaving the empty glass on a nearby window shelf and returning to sipping his own. "So, you gonna call her?"

"Um... I can't."

"What? Don't tell me you went and got yourself a girlfriend? That doesn't sound like the virgin champion I know."

"Don't call me that!" Red scowled, much to Blue's amusement. "And no, I don't have a girlfriend."

"Thank goodness, all is right in the world. So why can't you call her?"

"Because I don't have a phone."


	4. The Party Part 2

"Ladies. Gentlemen. Members of the press. Trainers of all ages and from every region. Thank you all for attending the War of Champions opening ceremony, we're very excited to have you here and we hope you've enjoyed our little shindig. At least, according to the kitchens, the open bar went down well."

The speaker paused for a few seconds as a light chuckle rippled through the crowd, before continuing. "Now. The moment you've all been waiting for, the current head of Silph Co International, Mr Joshua Alantee, is here to answer all your questions and explain just what will be happening over the coming weeks and months."

Joshua Alantee moved seamlessly though the assembled crowd and into the centre of the small circular stage that all the trainers had gathered around. You could tell he was every bit the business man, tall, lithe, he moved with purpose, grace and in such a way that simply by watching him walk you got the impression you should move out of his way, because whatever you were doing wasn't nearly as important and what he was doing. It was the kind of posture that you didn't see very often and it was bringing up some very unpleasant memories for Red.

'_He walks like HE used to'_

Red knew he couldn't judge the man entirely on how he walked, but something about the aura he gave off made him feel uncomfortable. The resemblance was uncanny and yet they shared no similar features, Joshua Alantee was a much younger man with a cropped head of blond hair and black rimmed glasses. Yet in Red's eyes he could see the shadow of a devil hovering over his head.

"Welcome everyone. I'm so glad you could be here." He purred. "Now I'm sure the trainers have no interest in me warbling on and on to the press about my company's achievements so I'll start with what you're all here for. The rules of the tournament."

With a flourish he waved his hand and a projector whirred into life, shining a huge map of the island onto the back wall of the room. Red had visited Kin island in the past and he'd had his suspicions but the image he could see projected on the wall confirmed them, the lush forests of the island were all gone. In their place was an unstoppable force of urbanisation.

"The War of Champions will take place in this arena, lovingly nicknamed 'The Battlefield' by our employees. This is where you will compete, an arena equipped with our Dynamic Battlefield System. I imagine that the press especially will be excited to hear about it."

There were mixed reactions from the crowd, some of the trainers had been excited at the prospect of a new battling style, others pessimistic, and some people simply didn't know or care. Red was in the last group of people.

'_Dynamic Battlefield System? Sounds like a massive annoyance.'_

"Now then!" Joshua declared, making a huge sweeping motion with his arms. A born showman it would seem. "Imagine the scene. Two trainers, two pokémon. The fight has reached a stalemate, neither side dares to make a move. Suddenly! The terrain shifts, and two more pokémon are released. The entire battle is completely changed in a mere second. That is the purpose of the Dynamic Battlefield System. The title we gave it is perfectly good, but I prefer to think of it as a single concept. Adapt or Die."

Joshua paused for a moment and let the whole room descended into a loud hum of discussion as the gathered people began to talk about what they'd just heard, Joshua seeming more than happy to be ignored. New battle types weren't uncommon and some, like Hoenn's native Double Battle system, had been excepted universally in the competitive battling scene, others such as the myriad of battle systems appearing from the regions of Unova and Kalos were less popular due to their complexity.

"What do you think Blue?"

"Tough call, I mean you know what a travesty the last few new battle types have been, but..." A wicked smile appeared on Blue's face. "Doesn't it sound interesting? Battles that are constantly changing, I can't say I don't like the idea of 'adapt or die'. Guess we have no way of knowing until we try it out huh?"

"Yeah."

"Mr Alantee! Could you go into more detail? What sort of computing system does it use? Is it safe for pokémon and trainers alike? How much will it cost to implement the system into existing battle arenas?"

Once the first reporter dared to break the silence the rest followed like a flood, soon you could barely hear anything in the room because of all the shouted questions and demands. Joshua Alantee just stood in the middle of it all, completely silent, until finally with a single hand gesture he silenced the entire room once more.

"Now now. I understand that you members of the press are eager to hear more about the more technical side of things, but we have almost two hundred hot blooded young trainers here! They don't want to sit here and listen to me blather on and on about business! Please hold all your questions to the end so that I can finish my tournament explanation." Despite his relaxed voice his eyes spoke volumes, without a single exception the entire of the press slunk back under the force of his gaze. Allowing him to continue unimpeded.

"Now. I'll keep this short and sweet. As you leave this building each competitor will be gifted a brand new Silph Co Nebula X smartphone, on it will be everything you require. Charging stations are positioned all over the island as well as free replacement batteries so you can get re connected in an instant. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this phone will be the key to your success in this tournament, it is fingerprint protected and serves as your identification, your map, your bank account, your schedule keeper and most importantly of all your only source of information about your competition."

Joshua grinned. "Now you are all free to do as you wish for the rest of the evening, the real competition starts tomorrow so keep your phones on you at all times and prepare as best you can."

* * *

Red was walking away from the main building, which was now host to an incredibly loud, and from the sounds of things dull, Q&A session. As he played around with the phone in his hands there was just one question on his mind.

'_Should I call her? Or just send her a message?'_

"You should just send her a message. It's more casual and if you're not very good at the whole dating scene, like you clearly are, then it's best to start slowly and avoid doing anything creepy."

Red blinked in surprise and turned towards the voice. It came from a woman around his age, with a luxuriously slim figure wrapped in what appeared to be a very expensive cerulean china dress. Her eyes were large and flushed with violet and her blue black hair was tied back into a bun that split into two small ponytails.

'_A psychic?'_

'_Bingo.'_

Red flinched at the feeling of a voice in his mind that was not his own. "Don't DO that." He hissed angrily. "Some people don't like having voices in their head!"

"Ah. Sorry." She replied. "I was just playing around. I'll stop."

"Good." Red replied. There was a pause, part of him wanted to get as far away from the psychic as possible but there was still the burning question. "You really think I should message her? You see she said I should call her some time, but I don't know if she meant that literally, and I don't know what we'd even talk about so-"

"Easy buddy." She replied. Cutting him off. "I can tell you're not very good at this. So take it slowly. Just casually message her a bit, get to know her a bit better. The more you panic the worse you'll get, she's just another person, not an alien or something. Ok?"

"Yeah." Red replied, pulling the apron out of his jacket pocket and thumbing the number into his new phone.

"Is that an apron?"

"Yeah. She didn't have any paper."

"This girl sounds weird."

"Yeah. She is. I'm Red by the way." Red told her his eyes still fixed on the phone as he typed, deleted and re typed his first every message to Jessica over and over.

"I know. Liza."

'_Tch. Psychics.'_

"I heard that. You know."

"You were supposed to." Red replied flippantly. Deleting 'hello' in favour of 'hey' before deleting it back to just 'h' and antagonising over whether 'hi' would be better than 'hey'.

"And you wonder why you're not beating women off with a stick. You gotta problem with psychics Red?" Liza demanded irately. "And for god's sake just pick one, it doesn't matter if it's 'Hi' or 'Hey' ok?"

"Stopping doing that! I only have a problem with the ones that read minds like it's no big thing, it is. Not to mention intrusive." Red told her irately.

"What you got something to hide?" She shot back.

"That's not the point and you know it." Red replied. "They're my damn thoughts and you have no right to hear them."

"Alright I get it. It's not like I do it on purpose ok? Half the time they just get into my head on their own."

'_What like this you mean?'_

"Dammit Sabrina!" Red snapped angrily while Liza flinched at the feeling of an unfamiliar voice in her head.

The girl in question chuckled and strode over towards them, her hips swinging with a tiniest hint of a seductive sway that was amplified by the flattering red ball gown she was wearing. "Does little Red still not like having people in his head?" She cooed putting her arms around him.

"I'm not a kid Sabrina. Will you please get off me?" Red scowled, his attention stolen from his phone by the sudden proximity of the beautiful Saffron City Gym Leader.

A mischievous light flashed in Sabrina's eyes and the moment Red was distracted she snatched his phone with her psychic powers. Red lunged after her but she had no difficulty holding him off with one arm whilst happily typing with the other.

"What are you-!? Stop it!" Red hissed angrily struggling against Sabrina's mental grip.

Sabrina frowned. "Stop struggling, you're giving me a headache." She told him her finger moving as quickly as she could over the keys. "Alright!" She chimed a smile appearing on her face. "All done."

She released Red and tossed him his phone. He scowled and unlocked the device checking the messages.

_Hey! It's Red._

"What the hell Sabrina!" Red demanded angrily. Looking between her and his phone in anguish. "Who told you to-"

Red was cut short when he felt the phone vibrate in his hands. He flinched nervously at the motion and after several seconds of deliberation found the courage to check his messages.

_Heya! Jessica here. I'm so excited you sent me a message! I didn't get to see the whole of the opening ceremony because of work. How'd it go?_

Red's rant faded in his throat and he simply turned and walked off in a huff, his fingers returning to running over time drafting the follow up message.

'_Geez is he always like that?'_

Sabrina glanced away from Red, who she'd watched bounce off a lamppost whilst trying to text, and towards Liza.

'_Pretty much. Doesn't look much like a legendary champion does he?'_

'_That guy? A legendary champion? You're kidding me.'_

'_You'd be surprised honey. What he lacks in social skills he makes up for in battling skill. I'd say he's one of the favourites to win the whole thing.'_

Liza blinked in amazement and turned to watch Red once again, he had learnt his lesson and was no longer texting and walking. Instead he was walking several paces, stopping, texting, and continuing to walk again. This was not being well received by the crowds around the main hotel. _'That guy?' _Liza thought to herself. _'No way.'_

* * *

Joshua dismissed his bodyguards and strode into his office with the air of a man riding the high of success. Everything had gone off without a hitch and he was about to treat himself to a nice, expensive, whiskey.

"Well? Joshua?"

Joshua flinched at the voice. No matter how many times he heard it he still couldn't get over his fear of that voice, yet at the same time it was his greatest strength, his terror of the man behind that voice meant that he didn't fear anything else. No boardroom or business meeting could hope to compare.

"Everything went exactly as planned sir. Things are proceeding without a hitch."

"And was **he **there?"

"Yes sir just as you anticipated. **He **has come to compete."

"Excellent. Very well, you are dismissed."

Joshua sighed as he turned away from the expensive liquor cabinet and began to leave, it was so embarrassing to be kicked out of his own office without any say in the matter. He knew better than to bite the hand that fed him however, and that hand had been in a very good mood lately thanks to the tournament, no need to exasperate the situation. As he closed the door behind him he heard mutter from within.

"Hahaha. Perfect, without **him** this would be no fun, one should enjoy their work after all, and I'm going to enjoy this a great deal."

Joshua crossed himself as he walked away. Not that he was particularly religious, but after hearing that he couldn't help but feel sort for the poor individual who had invoked his wrath. It was something Joshua hoped to never do himself.

'_Sorry buddy. Better me than you.'_

And so. The War of Champions began.

* * *

**Hey guys. Just a quick message saying thanks for all the follows and favs. Would love a few more reviews though. ;) Glad to see people are enjoying my story. The next chapter will be more action packed I swear! Anyway I'm now accepting OCs to compete in the War of Champions! Just drop a review or PM with their names and as much detail as you like! Preferably a team and battling history (where they were champion if they were, what badges they have, what style they favour.) Please avoid legendaries in the teams! **


	5. First Blood

Chapter 4: First Blood

Red stared down at his phone screen in disbelief at his bad luck. Up until this point the first day had been uneventful, he'd spent most of it with Blue getting to grips with the functions of their new phones and the rules of the tournament. They could be easily summarised into three. Do not disrespect or assault the staff members in any way, missing any matches you are scheduled for results in a forfeit, breaking any rules stated by the referee during a match results in a forfeit and possible disqualification. They'd received two texts from the organisers almost immediately.

_This is the organiser number, remember to check your phone regularly and keep an eye out for any texts from us. These will be important and Silph Co International will never use any number except for this._

And.

_Greetings contestant [Red Campione] congratulations of being invited to the tournament and we hope you do well. This message is here to explain the privileges you'll receive as a competitor. First and foremost, everything is free. Simply show your phone at any shop or to any Silph Co International employee in order to receive your discount. Alongside that, our computer system is free and we have intercontinental connectivity so feel free to browse the internet and access your PC box as much as you'd like. Check the map function on your phone to find your nearest computer room. If you have any other questions about the facilities available just dial HELP on your phone and hit call, you'll be put through to a Silph Co international employee. This is an automated message so please do not reply to this number, thank you and have a pleasant day._

Red hadn't had any questions and neither had Blue so they'd decided to spend the rest of the day exploring the island and getting to grips with the geography of the resort. They'd quickly found and frequented the majority of bars and restaurants. Finally at around eight in the evening, having eaten themselves nearly sick and gotten cheerfully drunk they had stopped at a cafe for copious amounts of water and coffee so they'd not regret their mid afternoon binge the next day. It was at that cafe that Red had received the two simultaneously best and worst texts of his life.

_Hey Red. I have tomorrow afternoon off and I was wondering if you wanted to get lunch together? _

Good news for Red's fledgling love life, as Blue had not hesitated to point out, at least until he'd received the second text less than two minutes later.

_Greeting contestant [Red Campione] Your [1__st__] match of the War of Champions and the [1__st__] match so far will be [12:30pm] tomorrow. Your opponent will be contestant [N] Good luck._

Red groaned in frustration. This wasn't fair. After all his time up on Mt Silver he'd been looking forward to normal human contact, especially with a girl as cute as Jess, but it seemed it was not to be. Internally he cursed his bad luck before typing his response out. Sighing in dejection as each letter appeared on screen.

_Sorry I can't. I've got a match._

The reply came a few moments later.

_Oh. Okay. Good luck tomorrow. I'll come cheer you on!_

Red cursed his luck and gave Blue a half hearted goodbye before wandering out of the cafe and back towards his hotel room. Already his mind was filled with thoughts of his battle tomorrow, he had no idea what kind of trainer this 'N' was but at that moment he didn't care. Red was in a bad mood already and tomorrow would be the perfect chance to vent his anger, forget winning, Red was going to annihilate him.

* * *

"You got a crappy draw this time around buddy."

Red didn't even look away from his two pokémon to respond to Blue, but then, he never did. "You got some info on my next opponent?"

"Yeah and it's not good news." Blue replied throwing himself down next to Red. "He's an ex champion of Unova, knocked out a veteran champion to get the title too. He took a beating immediately afterwards and lost his title, but the guy who took him down is still champion."

Red scowled as Pikachu ricocheted across the park they were training in, crashing through a thick bush and tumbling out the other side slightly worse for wear. He'd taken a very heavy mega punch from Snorlax which he shouldn't have, Pikachu was faster than that, but he was starting to slack off far too early in training. Hopefully the painful memory of that last hit would remind the lazy mouse next time.

"That doesn't sound too bad."

"It would be for most people, but I hadn't gotten to the actual bad news yet." Blue replied. "Seems he's got an ace in the hole, a legendary on his team."

Red blinked in surprise and turned to face Blue open mouthed. "A legendary? Are you serious? Is that even allowed?"

Blue shrugged. "Apparently. I don't think anybody ever thought they'd need a rule against it."

Red hissed, his bad luck was seemingly never-ending. "Dammit. That's one hell of an ace. Anyone I know?"

"Nah. A Unova native legendary, s'gotta legend attached to it but hell if I can remember it. It's called Reshiram, a Dragon/Fire type."

"So no weakness to Ice then? Tch."

Red sighed and started to block out all the distractions around him so he could concentrate, thinking hard about a counter to Reshiram. Dozens of ideas flooded his head, ranging from praying for a double battle to trying to bring down the stadium on top of the dragon, but none of them were really very realistic. He couldn't use Venasaur, a Fire/Dragon would rip him apart. Type wise Blastoise would be his best bet, him or Lapras, but he wasn't really sure if either were strong enough to stand up to a legendary on their own. In his team there was only one pokémon that might stand a chance against a legendary one on one.

Red glanced over at Pikachu, despite the powerful hit from Snorlax he was showing no signs of fatigue and had gone back to torturing the huge pokémon with his blinding fast speed. In terms of battle experience none of his pokémon could match Pikachu. In hundreds of battles over the years which had gone down to the wire, Pikachu had been the one to pull through, the one who overcame the odds, if Reshiram was N's ace then Pikachu was his.

_But will it be enough? _Red wondered. He'd had run ins with legendaries over the years and they'd all given him a vivid demonstration of what 'legendary' meant. The battle against Mewtwo... Red winced at the thought. His battle with Mewtwo was something he'd rather forget, it was the only time in his career when he had feared for his and his pokémon's lives so badly. Never had he considered taking on a legendary with only one pokémon.

"Hello."

Red jolted in surprise and was wrenched out of his thoughts. He spun and came face to knees with another guy, about the same age as him if not a little younger. The figure had long teal green hair and a very relaxed expression. He gave the impression of someone who only knew how to smile. Red couldn't help but notice he was wearing a cap, why did every skilled trainer he knew wear a cap?

"Yeah. Hello." Red replied, clambering to his feet. "Can I help you?"

"Red!" Blue groaned jabbing Red in the ribs with his elbow. "Don't be so damn rude to your fans. I mean yeah he isn't a cute little brunette but there's no need to be an ass. I'm sorry about him."

The figure laughed while Red simultaneously blushed and scowled at Blue. "No it's fine. I was hoping to get to meet one of your pokémon actually. If it isn't too much trouble?"

Red shrugged. It was a weird request but he had no reason to refuse the guy, even if he was a little strange. "Sure. Pikachu! Come here buddy."

Pikachu's head whipped round at the sound of Red's voice and he nimbly slipped through Snorlax's flailing limbs and skipped onto Red's shoulder. Snorlax grumbled as he watched Pikachu flit away, before rolling onto its back and falling asleep. Its body sprawled across one of the many paths across the park. Red had no idea why Snorlax had a habit of falling asleep on roads and paths.

The figure leaned towards Pikachu and stared deep into the pokémon's eyes. "Hello little friend. Can you tell me what your trainer is like?"

Red and Blue both watched in disbelief as the figure listened intently for nearly five straight minutes as Pikachu chirped 'Pika' over and over again. Finally the figure seemed content with what he had heard and turned back to look at Red, who had to force away the stunned expression on his face.

"Thank you. Your Pikachu cares about you very much and I am happy to have met such a wonderful trainer." The figure replied, shaking Red's hand. "Good luck in the match this afternoon. I'm looking forward to battling you."

Red blinked in disbelief as the figure walked away, before turning to face Blue. "Was... was that guy N?" He asked amazed.

"I guess he must have been." Blue replied.

"How'd that guy manage to catch a legendary?"

"Beats me."

* * *

In the last few minutes before the first match began Liza found herself fighting to find a seat in the huge stadium. The entire place was packed with spectators to the point where Liza wasn't sure she was going to be able to get a good seat, something she'd never expected considering the building could hold nearly fifty thousand people. It seemed that people were really excited about the upcoming competition, unfortunately for Red even just a gentle scan of the minds around her revealed that nobody really expected him to put up much of a fight. That included her.

'_Sorry buddy. Someone has to lose in the first match, it was just bad luck that it was you.'_

'_GOOD LUCK RED!'_

Liza groaned and tried to tune the thought out. She was fairly certain that every psychic in the entire stadium could hear it. _'How is that girl still at it?' _She wondered, rubbing her temple. _'Gotta give her credit, she's a loyal fan, probably the only person cheering him on too, even if it is only in her head.'_

She'd looked Red up before the fight. He'd been a pretty good champion, she had to give him that, lasting a full term was impressive but this had been in the early days of the Kanto league. The guy had probably never fought in a double battle, or against a Steel type, training had been too young back then for his term to really mean anything. It was only in the last two or three years that the leagues had begun to connect, the international tournaments had started to take off, and the true big leagues of battling emerged.

'_Still. He's not a bad guy, kinda rude and antisocial yes, but not a bad guy. I hope he doesn't get beaten too bad.'_

Liza reached out with her mind and, being careful not to be too intrusive, pushed several words through into Red's head.

'_Good luck.'_

* * *

Red had been nervous, no scratch that, he'd been scared. Scared when he left his training grounds in order to make his way over to the stadium. Scared as he walked through the locker rooms in the back of the stadium and towards the competitor's entrance. Even more scared as he walked onto the arena and shaken hands with N. His fear had reached an impossible fever pitch as he made his way down the seemingly never-ending walkway towards the red pedestal on his side of the arena. Scared of losing, scared of getting his pokémon hurt, scared of making a fool of himself. Now? Stood behind the pedestal with one hand on his pokéballs and the other stuffed in his pocket, he felt nothing.

Slowly a wave of goose bumps washed over him. His heart began to beat faster and faster until it was thumping violently in his chest. His shaking hands steadied. Inside his body adrenaline flooded through him like liquid fire and set his entire body aflame. Most predominantly of all however, was the uncontrollable grin that graced his features.

Red recognised this feeling, this intense excitement that took control of his body and stole away his common sense. That addicting euphoric feeling during a battle that he had not felt for nearly two years, the driving force behind his years of battling. He'd never battled to better himself, to make money or to become famous, but because it felt so damn good.

Their arena was huge but ultimately designed the same as any other, a standard rocky terrain with patches of grass and a dozen or so large spikes of rock emerging from the ground. Nothing fancy, nothing unusual. The same arena Red had battled on hundreds of times over the years. He already knew which pokémon he'd be sending out first.

_'Good luck.'_

Red winced as he felt the thought rise unnaturally in his head, it would seem a psychic in the audience wanted to show their support. Even Sabrina wasn't usually that intrusive so he guess it must have been the girl he'd met before. He sighed and glanced up into the stands, but with so many people he had no chance of picking her out amongst the crowd, so he didn't bother trying.

His hand plucked his first pokéball from his belt and he pressed it into the gap in the podium in front of him as he'd been told to do so. Across the enormous arena from his he saw N do the same. The moment both balls entered their respective podiums two things happened, on the front of N's podium, and he assumed his as well, six pokéball symbols appeared. While the huge digital display to Red's left lit up, the number five appearing briefly before the countdown began. At zero, their battle began.

Two pokémon appeared in twin flashes of light. On N's side of the field emerged a solid bipedal reptile with a craggy shell on its back. An imposing beast with plenty of sheer weight on its side, Carracosta. On Red's side of the field appeared an even larger creature. It was equal parts thick muscle and rippling fat, with a huge looming body and an appetite to match, Snorlax.

The battle began not with a crash, but a thud as the two hulking creatures began to lumber towards one another. Each step reverberated throughout the arena with a resounding crack as the dry earth beneath them fractured under their incredible weight. To Red's right he could see the display's timer had reset from zero and was now slowly ticking down from five minutes, he quickly came to the conclusion he'd prefer to be ahead when that timer hit zero.

"Rollout!"

"Wide Guard!"

Snorlax's huge body tumbled forward as a shimmering white light washed over its form, the giant rocketing towards Carracosta at an amazing speed. In response the turtle threw his arms out to the side and set his feet wide, a blue barrier shimmering into existence in front of him. With a resounding crash the spinning wrecking ball that was Snorlax met Carracosta's barrier and the two skidded backwards several feet, before Snorlax was brought to a halt.

"Hydro Pump!"

"Block it with Mega Punch!"

Snorlax's fist was already glowing with a brilliant white energy when Carracosta's head snapped forward and a brutal torrent of water erupted from within. Snorlax barely had time to bring his glowing fist up between him and the merciless Hydro Pump before the water was upon him, his fist just barely managing to split the blast and send the two separate streams into his shoulders instead of his chest. His whole body beginning to edge backwards under the force and his toes desperately grabbing at the cracking and splintering rock beneath his feet, Snorlax did his best to endure the furious attack.

"Get your guard up and endure! Then hit him back with a Brick Break!"

"Finish him with Aqua Jet!"

Carracosta's jaw snapped shut and its huge body lurched towards Snorlax, a frothing wave of water erupting from its body and launching it towards its opponent. Snorlax's second hand swung up and its arms crossed in front of its body just in time to receive the full force of the speeding Carracosta, who rocketed into Snorlax's crossed arms before ricocheting backwards several metres. Snorlax stood strong, albeit with huge bruises already forming on his arms from where he took the attack. His opponent tumbling backwards Snorlax pursued as he had been trained to do, both hands shining with a shimmering white light. It took him several seconds to close the distance between the two, giving Carracosta a chance to rise back onto its feet, but the moment they met Snorlax's punches rained down thick and fast. Each blow cracked Carracosta's shell and brought the creature closer and closer to its knees.

"HYDRO PUMP!"

"Left Hook!"

N's voice was panicked, it was clear to anyone how much danger Carracosta was in and Red had been waiting for this. Super close range was Snorlax's distance, in it he was capable of building up momentum, of using the power of gravity and his enormous weight to send his fists swinging at brutal speeds. He was capable of throwing a punch before his opponent could open its mouth.

The command Snorlax had been waiting for had come and his left fist cut through the air like an axe as Carracosta drew huge torrents of water into its mouth. The punch connected just as the attack erupted from the unfortunate turtle's mouth. The huge creature's head twisted violently and the blast arced past Snorlax's shoulder and into the arena wall, tearing great chucks of rock apart as it did.

"Finish it!"

Snorlax's fist still firmly lodged in Carracosta's jaw its whole body stretched upwards and its head snapped back, a swirling ball of light forming on the giants's forehead. With a roar of victory its whole body twisted downwards and its forehead smashed into the top of the dazed Carracosta's skull. A fierce crack echoed throughout the arena and Carracosta's body crumpled to the ground underneath the force of Snorlax's Giga Impact attack.

N's podium shone red and the unconscious body of his Carracosta disappeared in a flash of red light, moments later one of the pokéballs on N's podium went dark. Five remained. Wincing slightly N pressed Carracosta's pokéball and it shrunk, allowing him to pull it free of the podium before his hand went to his waist once again. He pushed his second pokéball into the slot moments later.

A reptilian bird emerged from the white light, its body covered in both scales and feathers and its beak filled with fangs. Archeops. It was barely half the size of Snorlax and hovering only a few feet off the ground but Red was already cursing, it might has well have been miles away, Snorlax didn't have the speed to catch it and withdrawing Snorlax meant withdrawing it from the battle permanently. When a pokémon left the battlefield, it left the battle.

To his left Red caught sight of the timer, less than a minute remained. There was nothing left to do but try and pave the way for the next pokémon on his team, and maybe this Dynamic Battlefield System could help with that.

"Thundershock!"

"Double Team. Then Dragon Claw!"

Red winced as he watched the Archeops burst forward with speed Snorlax couldn't hope to touch. The flying reptile's body blurred and a dozen perfect illusions appeared in its place, Snorlax's body shook as he summoned up his strength and sent a shimmering bolt of lightning shooting towards one of the Archeops, but it lacked the edge of a true Electric type's attack and Archeops didn't even bother avoiding it. Letting it slash through one of the copies before the remaining eleven shot towards Snorlax, there was a flash of purple light and a burst of crimson as three deep gashes erupted on Snorlax's shoulder. Seconds later Archeops was cut back through the air and dove at Snorlax again, ripping another gash into Snorlax's flesh.

Red's eyes flicked to the clock. Ten seconds remaining. Just ten measly seconds. His mind raced as he tried to think of a way to buy himself those ten seconds, every moment that he wasted Snorlax would take another painful Dragon Claw.

"Yawn! Then Rest!"

Red hands clawed at the banisters around him as he watched Snorlax who threw the arms he'd been using to guard himself outwards and sent a thick torrent of sleep inducing fog spewing from his mouth. Arhceops sharply pulled itself out of its dive and shot upwards and away from the gas, preventing it from inhaling any of the toxins, but it was enough. As Snorlax slumped onto the ground, a faint pink aura wrapping around its wounded body, Red watched as the seconds ticked away and the timer hit zero.

There was a loud claxon, an ominous rumble and the word 'WATER' flashed violently on the display.

* * *

Liza was still reeling from Snorlax's knockout blow against Carracosta. The battle had been brutal and Carracosta had fallen without doing much, this was not what she had expected to see. It was like a different person was standing in the arena, he wasn't scatter brained or clueless, he was focused, completely aware, he was the picture of a veteran trainer and even though they'd only just started , he was winning.

'_I told you didn't I?'_

Liza glanced around for a few seconds, searching for the source of the familiar mentality in her head before catching sight of Sabrina several rows bellow her, looking up and smirking.

'_He's like a completely different person.'_

'_And then some, don't look now but things are about to get interesting. Snorlax has done its bit, knowing him he'll return it soon.'_

Liza glanced down at the arena and saw Sabrina was right, Red's hand was already hovering over the podium as the whole stadium began to split in two and fill with water. Archeops was untouched hovering several metres above the floor but Snorlax was about to tumble into the rapidly forming pool. A few seconds later he finally gave in and Snorlax disappeared in a flash of red light.

* * *

Ethan's eyes lit up as he saw Red's Lapras clash with N's Archeops, bolts of frigid ice energy and flashes of purple filling the arena. This is what he'd wanted to see ever since he'd noticed Red's name on the competitor list, this was the man he'd declared his rival. Gold watched with barely contained excitement as Red's Lapras poured mist into the arena before sinking underwater, then to the amazement of everyone in the stadium it broke the surface almost immediately leaving it wide open and Archeops lashed out in response. The target of its attack, however, was to be revealed as an ice sculpture. Lapras erupted from the pool in a shower of water and ripped Archeops out of the sky with a brutally powerful Ice Beam, Archeops' body tumbling into the water where it was saved by the red light of its pokéball from an untimely demise.

"Did you see that?" He demanded excitedly turning to face Lyra beside him.

"What are you getting so excited for?" Lyra asked confused. "We're the ones who have to fight him."

"You just don't get it Lyra." Ethan replied slumping back in his seat as N released his next pokémon, a Vanilluxe. "He's just as good as I remember him being, maybe even better, and that's important. There's no point beating him if he's not at his best."

Lyra sighed. Ethan was nothing if not a battling maniac and it looked like whatever had happened when he climbed up Mt Silver had not only made it worse, but made him fixated with this Red guy. She glanced down at the battlefield, N's Vanilluxe was clashing with Red's Lapras. Both were resistant to the others attacks so a brutal war of attrition had begun as the two mercilessly pounded each other with Water and Ice attacks.

The battle was far from over yet.


	6. The Will to Win

Chapter 5 - The Will to Win

"Fantastic." He murmured as watched Red's Snorlax deliver the finishing blow to N's Carracosta. "To think the boy could get even stronger."

"Is the opponent we prepared for Red satisfactory sir?"

Joshua had to withhold a scowl. He'd crawled to the top of Silph Co precisely so he would never have to do this kind of bowing and scraping ever again, yet here he was. Pouring someone else his expensive whiskey, while they sat in his chair and watched his huge flat screen, it was like he was an intern all over again. Nothing had been right since the merger that made them Silph Co International.

"He's certainly an interesting young man." He replied chuckling. "But sadly he will likely not be good enough to defeat Red."

Joshua suppressed a nervous gulp. "Are you sure sir? We checked the competitors very carefully before choosing him. We believe his Reshiram is the strongest pokémon in the entire competition."

"Oh don't worry Joshua I'm not blaming you. Your decision was well made using the data we had available, it was my mistake for leaving someone like you in charge of the decision. You've not completely failed though, should N lose he will become valuable resources for us, make sure to handle him immediately after the battle."

"I'm not sure I understand sir. The data suggests that Red will lose by quite a wide margin."

"Data is not sufficient when it comes to pokémon battles, it requires a certain level of instinct I'm afraid. It's simple really. There is a distinctive difference between the two of them as trainers. To Red pokémon are his comrades in arms, while to N they are purely his friends. N does indeed have the stronger pokémon but he's growing more distracted the more of his pokémon fall, while Red is the contrary. His concentration wont truly peak until he has but one card remaining, one bullet left in his gun, one final pokémon."

"Ah... of course sir." Joshua had no idea what he was talking about, having never battled in his life the world of pokémon training remained a mystery. A world where instinct ruled over scientific fact was a world he could never hope to be a part of.

"There's no need to pretend to understand Joshua. Pokémon training is controlled chaos, where you have to learn to interpret your senses as pure instinct. It's entirely different to business and yet the two are so intricately linked, I've spend my life trying to master both and have barely scratched the surface."

'_He's getting all philosophical again. Great.' _Joshua groaned inwardly. He had a habit of doing this when he started drinking, especially regarding Red.

"Mastering both is a true challenge. I am curious to see if Red, who has such a deep mastery of battling, could ever master business... ah. I digress once again. It would seem I've had one too many glasses of whiskey. Go get me a Brazilian coffee, I don't want to have any gaps in my memory of this battle."

'_I really am just an intern to him.'_ Joshua groaned to himself as he made his way out of the room.

* * *

The crowd had erupted into an uncontrollable mass of bloodlust and excitement. Screams of both joy and despair roaring from the stands as Red's Lapras exchanged chilling blasts of energy with N's Vanilluxe. Red had been pegged as the underdog and a huge portion of the crowd were enjoying watching him defy the odds. Liza was amongst them.

'_He could really do it. Red could really win.'_

'_Don't get too excited, there's still Reshiram. The real battle hasn't started yet.'_

Liza's confidence faded at Sabrina's thoughts, as she remembered why Red had been branded an underdog in the first place, he might be showing off some incredible battling skills but sometimes skill wasn't enough to overcome a difference in power. A legendary was still a legendary after all. Still, some small part of her still wanted to believe that he could do it, if it was this Red, not the one she'd met outside the hotel, but the one stood in front of her battling the odds. If it was him, maybe he could still win.

"YOU CAN DO IT RED!"

Liza smirked. From the sounds of things the girl from before had finally found the courage to cheer out loud and boy was she going for it. _'If she can do it so can I.' _Liza thought, taking a deep breath.

"KICK HIS ASS RED!"

* * *

Lapras groaned in pain as the water around it crashed and sprayed violently. The huge ferry turtle was in serious trouble. Vanilluxe's relentless ice attacks were beginning to beat the fight out of the trapped pokémon and huge chunks of ice had been formed in the pool, cutting off Lapras' manoeuvrability and forcing it to exchange Ice Beams with the floating and much more mobile Vanilluxe.

"Shield yourself with Ice!"

"Get close to Lapras and don't let it hide!"

Shimmering spires of ice erupted from the water around Lapras as it sent Ice Beams flying everywhere, freezing everything above the water in sight. Vanilluxe's Ice beams stopped as it shot forward, skimming over the unstable terrain towards the small gap in the ice where Lapras waited, its attacks resuming as Lapras came into view once again.

"Go underwater!"

"Trap it underwater using Ice Beam and then freeze the whole pool!"

Lapras' head arced back, barely dodging several vicious Ice Beams, before the huge pokémon threw itself downwards, quickly descending twenty metres or so into the depths of the pool. Above the surface Vanilluxe began to coat the pool in ice with its attacks, quickly sealing off any means of escape. Red glanced at the clock, just under two minutes remaining until the next arena change, that meant Lapras only had that little time to win this fight before the water would disappear and render it completely immobile.

Red knew that Lapras could easily run out the rest of the clock underwater, the ferry pokémon could last for over an hour underwater without too much difficultly, but that wasn't an option. Red needed as much of a lead as possible if his plan to beat Reshiram was going to work. From deep beneath the ice Lapras' eyes met Red's own, underneath all that water and ice he couldn't hear any of Red's commands but that had never stopped them before. Red extended a single digit on his hand and began to twist his wrist in a swirling motion. Lapras understood. The ferry pokémon stopped moving under the water and just floated unnaturally still, an ominous blue glow shimmering through the water. Despite Vanilluxe's continued effort, slowly the water beneath the surface stopped freezing and the ice on the surface began to ever so slightly shift.

"Vanilluxe! Freeze Lapras solid!"

Red smirked. _'Just a bit more.' _Suddenly a loud crunch rattled through the stadium and gaping cracks began to form in the ice as it splintered and broke. Then with an enormous crash the entire of the sheet of ice shattered and began to circle the pool, carried by the raging force of the water beneath. Vanilluxe began to flit between the incoming chunks of ice as they tumbled around the pool, crashing into anything and everything indiscriminately, the panicked Ice pokémon desperately trying to freeze the pool as he'd been ordered.

"Surf!"

"Blizzard! Freeze everything!"

The spinning vortex of water paused for a brief second before suddenly tumbling back towards Red. Vanilluxe froze huge tracks of ice into the moving water with his relentless Blizzard but that wasn't enough to stop the raging wave, in mere seconds more and more water and ice was dragged from N's end of the pool and began to gather in front of Red. Vanilluxe's Blizzard slashed across the towering wall of water and managed to freeze huge chunks of it, but there was too much. Once every last drop of water was dragged into the imposing wave, Lapras released it.

Several tonnes of water, fuelled by Lapras' energy and the full force of gravity, ripped through Vanilluxe's ice and bore down on the poor pokémon. Crashing violently first into Vanilluxe, then into the far wall of the pool, sending the helpless Vanilluxe rocketing into the concrete. The impact sounded like an explosion, and the first few rows of spectators could feel the entire stadium shift under the force.

Water and ice went everywhere, crashing into the space between the arena and soaking everything in sight. Without a word hundreds of Silph Co employees emerged from dozens of entrances to begin cleaning up the mess, handing out towels to the thousands of unfortunate soaked spectators and doing their best to mop up the soaked stands. The pool was now barely half a metre deep and Lapras sat uncomfortably grounded as the last few seconds of the timer counted down, across the arena and lying in a crumbled heap against the far wall was Vanilluxe. After a few seconds the timer hit zero and the pool began to drain, both trainers returned their pokémon as the arena shifted into its next form. Jungle.

The whole arena shifted and rumbled as the floor began to rise once again, this time the floor that rose was full of greenery and thick foliage. It was impressive for a man made jungle and was just as thick and dense as any natural one, the visibility was poor enough that even from his position several metres about the arena Red could barely see N on the far side. Red knew exactly which of his pokémon would feel right at home in this environment.

From Red's next pokéball emerged a hulking reptilian quadruped, his body draped in a cloak of thick leaves and an enormous flower fixed on his muscular back. Venusaur. From N's side however, emerged an entirely different pokémon. Even larger than Venusaur, with shining white feathers, enormous fangs and a tail cloaked in flames. Reshiram, N's ace had appeared earlier than expected. Red hissed in frustration. This was his worst case scenario right here, Venusaur was at a serious disadvantage.

"Flamethrower!"

"Dodge!"

Red's predictions had been thrown out of whack and he had no option except to stall for time while he tried to think of some way to rescue Venusaur. Reshiram's head lurched forward and flames erupted from its maw, spewing over the battlefield and setting the jungle ablaze, the torrent of flame was... disappointing. The flames felt weak and instead of carrying the weight and brutal energy of a legendary seemed to be weak and feeble. Venusaur easily slid through the foliage, his heavily camouflaged body quickly disappearing in the thick jungle and making it impossible for Reshiram to spot him. The flames tore through the thick jungle with ease, but Venusaur managed to remain untouched.

'_Is there something wrong with Reshiram?' _Red wondered to himself, this didn't feel right. Reshiram felt powerful, but not legendary, if this was all he had there was no need for Venusaur to hide.

"Hyper Beam!"

"Double Team! Flamethrower!"

Reshiram's huge form blurred and divided into a dozen copies, each one spewing that same inexplicably weak fire over the jungle. Venusaur stood strong, preparing to take a Flamethrower attack if necessary, as a blinding white light began to gather in its petal. Red watched intently as the twelve Flamethrowers washed over the jungle, adding even more flames to the stifling blaze. In less than a second he'd picked out the real attack, the only one which was starting fires.

"Third from the left! Hyper Beam!"

With brutal explosive force the Hyper Beam erupted from Venusaur's flower and tore through the jungle smashing into the real Reshiram. In a flash the Reshiram copies disappeared, and so did Reshiram. To Red's amazement the real Reshiram faded from view and a red and black figure remained where it had been.

"Zoroark! Disappear in the jungle quick!"

'_So it wasn't Reshiram?'_

"Venusaur hide!"

The red and black pokémon form blurred and it shot into the jungle at full speed, slipping into the foliage and out of sight. Venusaur quickly did the same, lumbering into the jungle and fading into the plant life around it. N's Zoroark was clearly experienced when it came to hiding, neither Red not Venusaur had any idea where the fox pokémon had hidden itself. The jungle was already starting to thin, the flame consuming what remained of the foliage incredibly quickly, apparently the artificial plants they'd used in the arena's construction were a lot more flammable than normal living plants.

"Frenzy Plant!"

"Dodge and use Hone Claws!"

Venusaur's attack ripped through the arena floor, tearing apart plants and earth alike with huge writhing tendrils of vine, each covered in a razor sharp layer of thorns. The attack's rang and power was massive, vines crashing across the arena and imbedding themselves in the walls around them. It took a few seconds of destruction but finally Red caught sight of the Zoroark, flitting between the remaining trees and desperately dodging the ruthless attack.

"Venusaur to your left!"

"Flamethrower! Then Shadow Claw!"

Zoroark finally came into view as it burst from the cover of the trees and launched at Venusaur, flames spewing from its mouth and it claws bathed in purple fire. It body shaking with the sheer effort of maintaining such a powerful attack Venusaur wrenched several of the tendrils from the ground and sent them shooting towards Zoroark. The tendrils flash towards Zoroark only for the fox pokémon to easily slip past the attack, before unleashing a torrent of flame that tore straight into Venusaur's flank.

"Double Edge!"

"Shadow Claw!"

Venusaur's shaking limbs tensed, preparing to fling itself recklessly at Zoroark, but its strength was gone. The best Venusaur could manage was to stand firm as Zoroark's claws ripped into its front legs, bring it to its knees in a flash of crimson. Its body burnt and torn there was no doubt Venusaur was out of strength, Zoroark had not brought down Venusaur without cost however, the fox pokémon was panting heavily and clutching its side where Venusaur's Hyper Beam had connected.

* * *

Blue winced as he saw Zoroark's claws cut into Venusaur's flesh. _'You're getting reckless Red. You should have known that last Frenzy Plant would put Venusaur out of commission.'_ Blue was starting to worry about Red. Granted the battle was going better than expected, but between Snorlax and Venusaur, Red was taking a lot of risks. If even one of his gambles hadn't paid off then Red would have lost a pokémon and started falling behind, he was acting reckless.

"Red's plan this time round seems riskier than usual."

"Yeah. I think he's worried about fighting a legendary." Blue replied.

Leaf's expression darkened. "You don't suppose it has anything to do with... you know..."

"Mewtwo?" Blue asked, finishing her sentence for her. "Maybe. He's been different ever since he got back from that battle. Nervous. Unsure of himself. He goes mostly back to normal during battles but I can't help but worry."

"Worry?"

"Yeah. About what would happen if he lost this time around."

Leaf looked at Blue nervously, unwilling to ask the question eating away at her. Finally, she caved. "You don't think he'll have another... breakdown. Do you?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Let's just hope he wins. For his sake, and the sake of his pokémon."

"You're a lousy cheerleader Blue."

* * *

Charizard emerged onto the remains of the jungle. The huge dragon twisted its body through a hundred and eighty degrees so it could spew flame over the charred remains of the foliage, ripping it to shreds with crimson fire. Its wings flapped and its tail swung idly as it fixed Zoroark with a fierce glare and let out an ear splitting roar. Charizard had always been a show off.

"Fire Fang!"

"Shadow Claw!"

Charizard's legs crashed into the ground and its wings ripped through the air, sending it rocketing towards Zoroark at blinding speed, its fangs rippling with searing hot flames. Zoroark's claws shone with purple light in response and then it launched itself at the approaching Charizard, the duo's clash was over in less than a second. Charizard lashed out with its burning fangs, brutal heat cutting through the air and narrowly missing Zoroark's shoulder. Zoroark lashed out with its own purple clad claws at the same time, the crackling purple energy stopping just short of Charizard's stomach, its wrist trapped between Charizard's claws. They separated for the briefest of seconds, long enough for each to take a single breath, before clashing once more.

There was no input from their trainers as the two pokémon slashed and tore at each other's flesh, Zoroark's claws and Charizard's fangs ripped through the air time and time again, and both pokémon dodged the near fatal blows, time and time again. The shockwaves from their attacks stifled the flames around them as the heat from Charizard's flames dried the ground, causing it to crack and break beneath their feet as they fought.

"Overheat!"

"Protect!"

Merciless waves of flame erupted from Charizard's skin, each tendril flashing as bright as a supernova, Zoroark's protect barely rose in time to shield its body from the searing flame. Its shielded form was sent arcing across the arena, imbedding in the wall and depositing Zoroark's stunned body on the ground underneath the crater it had dug in the wall.

"Finish him with Seismic Toss!"

"Night Daze!"

Charizard shot forward, a trail of shimmering heat in its wake, its hands glowing with brilliant white energy. Zoroark wrenched one arm unsteadily up until it was level with its approaching enemy and began to summon up its strength, black light shimmered and pulsed around it paw as Charizard shot towards it at breakneck speed. An all consuming wave of black energy erupted from Zoroark's paw just as Charizard closed the distance between them, too close to dodge and determined to finish the battle Charizard let the corrosive energy wash over its torso and lashed out with his arm. His hand closed around the fur on Zoroark's chest.

Charizard's body tensed and it ripped Zoroark from the ground and into the air, stopping the torrent of black energy. It paid no heed to the dark putrid burns that now covered its torso, its energy shinning fiercely in its claws Charizard wrenched Zoroark down into the ground, hammering it into the dry earth and carving a crater into the floor with the pure force of its attack. Zoroark jolted briefly under Charizard's weight before going completely still. Charizard's claw released Zoroark's unconscious form and raised its head in victory, an ear splitting victory roar erupting from its maw.

Red's hands were shaking, his heart was in his throat, and breath was ragged. The adrenaline was still present but that fatigue from the battle was starting to kick in, some people underestimate the strain a trainer goes through remain so close to such a high level battle. The level of concentration required makes you tired, the constant exposure to the differing temperatures, shockwaves, and variety of poisonous gasses and energies given off by pokémon during a fierce battle wore you down and left your body a mess. It wasn't unheard of for a trainer to collapse when battling at an international level and Red was already beginning to feel the strain, but he wasn't about to give up when things were going so well.

A flash of light, from inside emerged a dozen huge gears, all spinning in tandem around some kind of blue bolt, a single eye on one of the gears. Klinklang. N's last pokémon before Reshiram. Just one more before the final test. Red could hardly believe it, things had gone so well, and now N had released this. The poor thing was made of metal.

"Flamethrower!"

"Discharge!"

Charizard barely had time to summon up a mouthful of flames before several searing bolts of lightning erupted from Klinklang's body. One came dangerously close to slashing clean through Charizard's wing as he shot off the ground in an attempt to dodge the attack, arcing up into the sky only to be forced down towards the ground once more as yet another bolt of lightning shot towards the soaring dragon.

Red was losing his cool. If this gear pokémon beat Charizard all he'd have left would be Blastoise and Pikachu, neither of them could afford to waste any strength before fighting Reshiram. He clenched his jaw in frustration and let out a pained growl, he had no more options.

"Flare Blitz!"

Flame enshrouded Charizard, but these flames were unlike ordinary flames. They were brittle, sharp, they tore at the air around it and even as Charizard banked through the air and shot towards Klinklang you could see tore into its skin as well. This move was as merciless to the user as it was to the foe you used it on. Red could see the pain evident on his pokémon's face as the unwelcoming flames bit deep into the corroded flesh of Charizard's torso.

"Thundershock!"

"DO IT CHARIZARD!"

Red could do nothing more than scream encouragement as Charizard tore through the air towards Klinklang, its own attack ripping it to shreds as it blasted through Klinklang's Thundershock. The impact was felt all the way to the back of the stadium as Charizard shattered Klinklang with the searing hot force of its attack. The ground exploded beneath them and nobody could see anything for a few moments as they waited for the ruptured earth to settle once again, finally the scene cleared. Charizard was knelt in a jagged crater almost ten feet deep, its wings shaking against its back and its torso spewing blood onto the dust beneath its shattered frame. In the scattered remains of the unconscious Klinklang all that remained alive was a single slightly melted segment, which lay several feet away from Charizard.

Both trainers returned their pokémon without a word. The entire stadium was silent, both in awe of the intensity of the battle before them and in anticipation of the battle that was about to take place. Red placed Blastiose's pokéball on the podium in front of him and glanced up at N, their eyes met for the briefest of seconds, and each saw just the slightest glimpse of the other's soul. Stripped bare in the heat of battle. Both saw the goodness in the other, the love of their pokémon, and at the same time the desire to win, the hardships endured and the will. The unrelenting will to win.

As N drew Reshiram's pokéball from his belt and placed it in the podium before him, Red knew the battle was far from over. Things would only get harsher from here on out, more brutal, more intense, neither of them could afford a second of hesitation or mercy. Blood would be spilled, a victor would emerge, and he would carry the weight of the fallen on his back. This was what it meant to be a trainer. This is what it meant to be a champion.

This was what it felt like to be the best, like no one ever was.

**Two chapters in as many days? I must be going crazy. Had a day off today and somehow I just couldn't stop. Enjoy and maybe review? It's always cool to hear if you enjoyed the story.**


	7. Thunder and Lightning

Chapter 6 - Thunder and Lightning

Amidst the excitement of the stadium there was one small pocket of calm. One single nook that, through a near miracle of positioning and design, was sheltered from the ferocious roar of the crowd and the constant seething wave of battle. It was in this spot that the figure hid, watching the spectacle taking place within the arena with an air of curiosity.

A man in his mid twenties, with long blue hair that had grown down to his shoulder blades and a long burgundy jacket with matching combat boots. His expression was dark and hostile, his eyes drawn and narrow and his head tilted upwards slightly, permanently looking down his nose at whatever had the audacity to enter into his field of vision.

'_These guys are good. If the rest of the competitors are at this level I'm going to have trouble moving freely. I'll just have to hope I don't draw against anybody that strong. Beating them would draw too much attention to myself.'_

"Jovi I don't think we're allowed down here!"

"Shush Big Brother! I'm sure I saw a suspicious looking guy come down here, and it's my job to keep an eye out for suspicious people."

The figure flinched as he heard the voices approaching his hiding spot. He slid back against the wall and slowed his breathing down until it was indistinguishable amidst the sounds of the arena. The last thing he needed was any attention, especially from those two, he cursed his bad luck. Of all the people he could be sharing a hotel with it had to be them, simply leaving his hotel room had become a needlessly complicated process. It was necessary though, if that damn brat recognised him then all his hard work would be wasted.

"Jovi! If we get caught playing around in here we're gonna get in serious trouble!"

"We're not playing around! We're..." There was a distinct pause and for a moment the figure worried he might have been spotted. "...Fine. I can't see anybody down here anyway."

The figure let out a sigh of relief. It seemed he was safe for now. He sighed and glanced back at the battle, it seemed that the long haired one, N was it? Was down to his last pokémon, while the other one had two remaining. The figure had heard about N's last pokémon, he doubted there was a single person in the tournament who hadn't heard about the kid who'd caught a legendary. You'd have to have spent the last couple of years in a cave, or up a mountain or something, not to know.

"Good luck kid." The figure muttered into the chaos of the stadium as he settled down to watch the end of the match. "Let's see if you have what it takes to slay a legend."

* * *

Red watched in horror as the dragon rose above the charred remains of the battlefield. The difference between the copy he'd seen before and what stood before him now was the difference between heaven and earth, that much was clear now. You could feel it in the air, a thick stifling pressure unlike anything you'd ever experienced in your life. It radiated raw primal fear. Your breath caught in your throat and your muscles trembled just from the strain of standing in its presence, it was the kind of fear that consumed you like a black mist until you could barely see, think or feel. All consuming.

Red wanted to laugh, at himself, at this moment, and he would have if his body was capable of more than just shaking. It was all so absurd, he'd wanted to fight that? His pokémon were going to defeat that? Impossible. Im-Poss-Ible.

'_Impossible!'_

Red wanted to scream. Wanted to run. Wanted this nightmare to be over. He couldn't believe he'd ever considered the idea of battling that...

'_Monster?' _

No, that wasn't right. It wasn't a monster, not a true monster. It was powerful, terrifying, but also noble, divine. He'd faced a monster, a real monster, one that had no mercy or kindness in it soul. A monster that redefined strength into something dark and cruel, a monster that had taken something precious from him, this was not like that. This was no monster.

The rest of the stadium was still trembling from the sight of Reshiram, but somehow Red's body steadied, the fear drained from his soul. His body began to shake once again, but this time with renewed adrenaline. Granted his features had lost their excited smile but in its place was a sharp determined scowl. He could win. He would win. If Reshiram was a legend, then it was time for him to make a legend of his own.

Red placed Blastoise's pokéball into the slot and watched as it appeared in the stadium below. The flash of white revealing the muscular cannon tortoise in all his glory, against many opponents his bulk would have seemed intimidating, the shine of his cannons striking fear into those who stood against him. Reshiram was not one of those opponents. The pressure rained down upon Blastoise, but its master's excitement had infected it. Blastoise stood strong, the battle begun.

"This is your last chance Red!" N bellowed over the battlefield. "You're truly an amazing trainer. You calculated the formula of this battle flawlessly! But Reshiram will not lose. Don't force your pokémon into a fight you can't win!"

"Rain Dance!"

If N had asked that question just a few seconds earlier Red might have said yes, but now he'd found his courage once again. He was grateful for N's hesitation though, if Reshiram had attacked straight away he might not have had a chance to use this attack.

Blastoise's cannons flicked upwards and a mass of vermilion steam burst from within, shooting up into the sky and detonating in a cloud of steam. Vicious black clouds began to form from the hovering blue and within seconds a thick downpour coated the battlefield, quickly extinguishing the remaining flames amid the burnt jungle and filling the battlefield with slick mud. Blastoise let out an annoyed snort, as if the attack was beneath it, before letting out a defiant roar

"So be it! Dragon Pulse!"

"Stand your ground! Block it!"

A cloud of steam had engulfed Reshiram's body as the rain boiled against its blazing fur. Its legs spread apart, planting its weight firmly, and its head swung forward. Then from within its maw erupted an immense torrent of purple energy. The attack was just as strong as Red had feared, tearing through the air and whipping up an intense gale, the wind clawed at Red's body and for a second he was afraid he'd be ripped off his podium and into the arena. Clinging to the nearest railing Red watched as the attack collided with Blastoise, the huge turtle's arms had swung up to intercept the attack, but it looked futile to those watching. The colossal torrent of energy engulfed Blastoise with ease, only splitting slightly in the centre, continuing into the back wall where it cracked and splintered the concrete of the arena like glass.

The heat from the attack stung Red's body and the bright light that shone so close to him burnt and clawed at his eyes, with tears streaming down his face Red refused to look away. He was waiting for the moment he knew had to come, the brief second when the brutal torrent started to weaken as Reshiram was forced to relinquish his attack and breathe. Time passed, seconds ticked by painfully slowly and the intensity of the attack failed to weaken, Red started to doubt if it ever would, if Blastoise was even still conscious beneath the raging mass of violet. The only proof that Red's unfortunate pokémon hadn't simply been disintegrated by the sheer fury of the attack was the slight split that remained in the beam.

Then it happened. For the briefest of seconds the heat and pressure dipped, it would be impossible to tell unless you were being exposed to the attack, unless you could feel the burning heat and unstoppable force for yourself. Reshiram's lungs were unable to wait any longer, legendary or not the pokémon still needed to breathe. This was what Red was waiting for.

"HYDRO CANNON!"

Red screamed his voice hoarse, he was betting on a lot of ifs. If Blastoise was still conscious, if it could still hear Red's voice, if it still had enough strength to even use an attack. For a brief moment, as Reshiram's attack started to dwindle, Red realised he was asking the impossible of his pokémon.

Luckily they were used to that.

Twin blasts of raging water tore through what remained of Reshiram's Dragon Pulse. It was the kind of attack that most pokémon could only dream of firing, perfectly orchestrated by Red. The most powerful water attack: Hydro Cannon. In order to make certain the attack landed he'd needed to attack during Reshiram's weakest moment. He had Rain Dance in effect, acting as both sword and shield, the water strengthening Blastoise's body and attacks so it could weather Reshiram's Dragon Pulse. Finally there were Blastoise's wounds, they ran deep, so deep that its ability: Torrent emerged. These factors all formed one single attack, the strongest attack Blastoise could produce.

The twin beams of water rocketed towards Reshiram at unimaginable speeds, the legend could do nothing to block, only take a single deep breath before the attack impacted with its chest. An incredible shockwave ripped through the arena, sending belongings, food, and even light people from the front few rows flying up into the upper reaches of the stands. The muddy ground beneath the feet of the competing pokémon was ripped up and plastered against the walls of the arena, revealing the concrete floor several metres below.

Reshiram's huge form was plucked from the ground and thrust through the air, the entire of its bulk impacted with N's side of the arena, tearing the concrete to pieces and collapsing an entire wall while N was nearly thrown clear of his podium by the force. As the dust settled Reshiram was left lying in the enormous crater, Blastoise however, was finished. Its strength was completely drained from that attack, its arms and torso were charred nearly black, its shell was cracked and splintered in over a dozen different places and the barrel of one of its cannon's had melted and then been ripped in half by the force of its own attack.

Red withdrew Blastoise solemnly, the wrecked condition of his pokémon's body weighing heavily on his mind. That one attack had been Blastoise's only duty this entire battle and it had performed perfectly, he was proud and grateful. He glanced over at N, who was wide eyed, whether it was from terror, amazement or disbelief Red couldn't tell, but Red wasn't going to miss an opening.

Red clicked his final pokéball into the slot in front of him before glancing over at N and Reshiram. The mighty dragon pokémon was already emerging from the crater, but the air of nobility had gone and the unbearable pressure had weakened. Reshiram was badly wounded, blood was dribbling from its maw, one of its arms hung limply at its side and underneath the pure white fur of its chest you could see thick purple bruises blossoming. It still held a pressure unlike other pokémon however, a single roar from the creature's enraged mouth was enough to remind Red that the battle wasn't over.

* * *

"Pikachu! Finish this! Thunder!"

There have been debates about the exact nature of the inside of a pokéball for decades, people arguing about what the pokémon experience, what they can see and hear. Red had no idea himself but, in moments like this, he was almost certain Pikachu was watching the battle alongside him from within. The electric mouse burst out of the white beam of energy in a blazing trail of sparks which ripped and tore through the air before jolting up into the fuming black clouds. The second reason why Rain Dance had been so crucial, it gave Pikachu a powerful boost.

"Fusion Flare!"

N was shaken. The command had come too late. Even as Reshiram's tail flames began to flicker and flare into life a bolt of lightning streaked down from the clouds and smashed into Pikachu, charging it with a seething mass of electrical energy. In the few seconds before the roaring flames gathered in Reshiram's maw the energy gathered in Pikachu's tiny frame had already erupted, crashing into Reshiram's wounded body. The force was brutal, Reshiram's body tumbled backwards several meters and crashed to the ground, another shockwave tore through the stadium and another couple of hundred people lost their popcorn.

Reshiram's body shook and an ear splitting roar echoed through the arena. It's sense was gone, forget nobility and divinity, all that remained was a cornered beast. Reshiram rose to its feet, its wings lashing out into the sky. Its trembling legs launched it forward and it shot towards Pikachu, skimming the ground.

"Agility! Light Screen!"

"Um...Outrage!"

Red was frustrated. The battle was supposed to be over. That Thunder should have done it. Instead N was no longer in control and Reshiram's rage making it run wild, but that was more of a hindrance than a bonus, N's panic earlier had been useful.

Pikachu's body shone with white light and the edges of its form blurred as its whole body vibrated violently. Bathed in vicious purple flames Reshiram lashed out at Pikachu with its good arm, claws like knives scythed through the air where Pikachu had been less than a second before, lashing out again and again with violent intensity. Pikachu was at peak concentration, every fibre of its being focused on dodging Reshiram's attacks. They were lightning fast, razor sharp and overflowing with burning energy. Reshiram had brushed off Pikachu's Thunder but anyone could see that Pikachu couldn't do the same to this attack.

Pikachu's body shot around Reshiram in a trail of white light, around them dozens of shimmering glass like platforms appeared with a mere thought, acting as nothing more than a single stepping stone for the blazing fast mouse pokémon as it slipped through Reshiram's attacks, only to be shattered moments later by one of Reshiram's flailing limbs. The battlefield was showered in shards of psychic energy, they littered the ground like frost. Slowly melting away as Pikachu summoned up yet more barriers, more stepping stones, so that it could keep moving, keep dodging, keep itself from being torn to shreds.

Red's heart was pounding harder than ever, Pikachu was dancing on the precipice of defeat, never more than a second of distraction away from the single attack that would rip it into pieces. Yet, though his heart was pounding, his mind was clear. There was one attack left, something they'd practiced sparingly while on Mt Silver, it was risky, dangerous, but also powerful.

Red watched the streaks of light crisscross in front of his eyes, they were moving so fast he could barely make out anything, but he watched anyway. His aching, tear filled, eyes studied the battle intently, waiting. Finally he caught it, the same as before, the single second of weakness in that brutal radiation of energy that signified the impending end of an attack.

"Pikachu! CLIMB!"

The streak of light that was Pikachu shot into the air, below Reshiram's legs tensed and its wings slammed downwards in an attempt at following the tiny mouse, only for its knees to tremble and collapse. Reshiram was grounded by its fatigue for a few seconds and Pikachu climbed uninterrupted, leaving a trail of barriers and shining white light as it nimbly jumped up into the sky, finally disappearing into the angry clouds above.

"Discharge! Volt Tackle!"

Red bellowed as loud as he could up into the clouds where Pikachu was waiting, not that it really mattered, Pikachu had already guessed what Red was planning. Hundreds of scorching tendrils of lightning snaked out of the cloud for the briefest of seconds before suddenly being sucked back in, a thunderclap shook the arena and deafened every spectator unlucky enough to have working hearing, and a shining golden bullet erupted from the storm cloud.

Pikachu's body was supercharged from the intense electrical energy it had gathered inside the cloud, every strand of fur shone with a blinding golden light and its form was blurred by the sheer volume of electricity that was surrounding it, so intense that it left a trail of white behind as it plummeted towards its target. Pikachu streaked towards Reshiram bathed in every last volt of energy it could muster, the huge dragon had barely even a second to raise its arm and protect itself. It was helpless.

_!_

Red felt it. A single twinge in the back of his mind, a tiny amount of discomfort, of doubt, something was wrong. Time slowed, and he saw it. A single twitch in the corner of Reshiram's mouth, a single flicker of purple energy that escaped from within. It was hiding a Dragon Pulse. Suddenly Red could see it clearly in his mind, Reshiram's maw snapping open, the furious dragon energy washing over his poor partner, and finally, his defeat.

"CROSS OVER!"

Red's final scream. It was a desperate hope. Cross Over was a command he'd taught Pikachu to dodge beam attacks, a leftwards feint before cross to the opposing pokémon's right side. It didn't apply, Pikachu had no control over its trajectory, the poor pokémon probably couldn't even hear him.

Pikachu heard him.

Whether it was chance, or their connection as partners and friends, that allowed Red's words to penetrate the wall of static and reach Pikachu's ears will never be revealed. With half a second. No. Even less than half a second left Reshiram's maw snapped open and a seething mass of purple began to fill Pikachu's vision.

Four meters away from the purple energy of Reshiram's attack, Pikachu's body twisted.

Three meters away, a barrier appeared beneath Pikachu's feet, the shimmering glass like surface beginning to melt immediately when exposed to the raw force Pikachu was emitting.

Two meters away, Pikachu's legs bent and tensed.

One meter away, Pikachu jumped.

A zigzag of golden light flashed around the mass of violet energy, it all happened in less than a second, Pikachu's body dodged the Dragon Pulse attack by millimetres. So close that the tips of Pikachu's fur were scorched slightly, a distance where a single hairs breadth would have made all the difference. The Dragon Pulse erupted into the sky, cutting through the horizon as it carried on into the stratosphere, travelling so far that for a second you almost felt worried it was going to strike one of the stars out of the sky.

Pikachu's blurred golden form crashed into Reshiram like a meteor. There was an explosion of gold and sharp yellow light and the greatest shockwave yet crashed through the arena, causing the entire concrete structure to crack and shatter. The entire arena crumbled into rubble and sent both N and Red tumbling down onto the battlefield. Lights and windows throughout the entire stadium shattered within micro seconds of each other and thousands of people were blown out of their seats.

Inside the arena however, you could see the true damage of the attack. The bottom of the battlefield had been blown to pieces and a huge crater ripped out of the concrete floor of the arena, great clouds of grey dust hovering above and within the jagged hole. The first pokémon to emerge from the dust cloud was Pikachu, the mouse was completely drained of the excess energy it had been pumped full of and its injuries showed. Gashes, bruises, electrical burns, it had more than enough of each and it was a miracle it was able to drag its wounded form out of the crater.

Pikachu perched on the edge of the viscous tear in the ground, its small form shaking violently from the strain of remaining upright. The dust thinned painfully slowly, each second that passed it felt like Pikachu would collapse, but finally the crater cleared.

Reshiram lay, broken and defeated , in the remains of the arena.

Red's howl of triumph must have echoed for miles.

* * *

Jess tried desperately to hold back her excited squeal as she entered the locker rooms through the staff entrance. The sight before her eyes was quite possibly the most adorable thing she'd ever seen, Red was curled up on the floor of the locker room fast asleep and with Pikachu nestled up against his neck. Somehow he looked so serene she didn't want to wake him, but she doubted he'd want the press waiting outside to find him like this and they'd been waiting long enough that they were about ready to break the door down.

"Red...Red you need to wake up." She whispered quietly next to his ear, shaking him slightly.

"That's not good enough. You need to give him a good kick, like this!" Jess looked up at the source of the voice just in time to see a young guy's foot connect with Red's ribs

"BLUE YOU MOTHER F-Jess?" Red snapped bolting upright only to freeze when he saw Jess. "Did you just kick me in the ribs?"

"Ah! No! it was-" Jess frantically motioned to the guy who'd kicked Red, who was now just stood over him grinning.

"Morning sleeping beauty. You gonna introduce me to your lady friend?"

Red scowled and pulled himself to his feet, cradling Pikachu in his arms. "Yeah sure. Blue this is Jess, Jess this is Blue-needsastickshoveduphisass-Oak."

Jess looked bemused while Blue just grinned. "Come on already man, you've been asleep for about half an hour and the press are getting riled up. You're the hero of the hour, come meet your adoring fans, then once that's over Leaf's waiting for us at that Italian restaurant."

"She's here?" Red asked. "Why didn't she come see me sooner?"

"She only got here in time for your match. She's been doing important pokémon research with Professor Oak and couldn't get away, not all of us can just get up and leave whenever we like mountain man."

"Leaf?" Jess asked as they made their way to the exit.

"She's an old friend. We got our first pokémon at the same time." Red replied.

"Ah..." Jess was about to continue when they emerged into the halway, where a pack of reporters were waiting hungrily.

"Mr Campione! How does it feel to win such an incredible match?"

"Mr Campione What have you been doing since you were champion?"

"Mr Champi-"

"EVERYBODY QUIET!" Blue bellowed interrupting the tide of questions before smoothly taking control as he always did. "One at a time!"

Red groaned as the flood of questions washed over him, only slightly impeded by Blue. This was not going to end quickly.


End file.
